The wood

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The wood
General information
origin Berlin , Germany
Genre (s) Avant-garde , experimental music, jazz
founding 1993
resolution 1998
Founding members
Christian Komorowski
violin
 Anja Clarissa Gürke (until 1997)
Herman Beesten Jr.
Last occupation
violin
 Christian Komorowski
violin
 Kati Gramß
Drums
 Herman Beesten Jr.

Das Holz is a German band that was active in the Berlin underground and indie scene in the 1990s . Their motto was "Two violins and one drum kit - we don't need more" Musically it was a mixture of jazz and classical music and modern avant-garde and minimal music, which was initially played exclusively on wooden instruments.

history

The band was formed in the spring of 1993. Anja Clarissa Gürke and Christian Komorowski were working together on a soundtrack for a radio play, when Deine Lakaien - and Run Run Vanguard singer Alexander Veljanov , who knew Komorowski from a collaboration with Love Sister Hope , guests for the release party for his first long player Side project was looking for. At that time, Komorowski was also a live musician with Deine Lakaien (1992 to 1999). Komorowski knew the drummer Hermann Beesten Jr. from their time together with Love Sister Hope. The response was good and so the three musicians decided to continue making music with this line-up.

Das Holz made a name for itself for the first time in 1993 with their first appearance at the release party for the Run-Run Vanguard album Suck Success . At that time the band consisted of Anja Clarissa Gürke (violin), Christian Komorowski (violin) and Hermann Beesten Jr. (drums).

By winning the Berlin Metrobeat, a newcomer competition with festival character, in 1995, the musicians gained more prominence; also through the acoustic tour of Deine Lakaien, on which they appeared as the opening act in the same year, and through concerts with other well-known artists of the scene, such as The Inchtabokatables , Poems for Laila and Element of Crime .

Also in the same year, the first album, Das Holz , which was recorded purely instrumentally and with the minimum line-up, was released by the music label Trikont .

On the 1997 released second album, Velouria , Anja Clarissa Gürke was replaced by the studied violinist Kati Gramß (violin). This album was produced by Element of Crime singer Sven Regener and released on the dark wave label Chrom Records .

On the third album Drei (1998) additional instruments were used, including cello ( B. Interpretation ), trumpet (Sven Regener), guitar (El Conde by Love Sister Hop), double bass and sequencer. We also worked with guest singer Susie van der Meer and guest singers Alexander Veljanov (Deine Lakaien) and Sven Regener (Element of Crime).

After the third album, the project was put on hold for a limited time "because the contributors are musically occupied elsewhere".

concept

According to the band, their rather unusual name was chosen because, at least in the initial phase, only wooden instruments were used and Das Holz used them to make purely acoustic and instrumental music.

It is difficult to determine the music direction, the influences range from Eastern European folk music to jazz and classical music to modern avant-garde and minimal music.

Almost all pieces have first names as titles. This concept arose from a spontaneous idea: “At the beginning, when there were only a few songs, we suddenly faced the problem that we could not tell each other which piece we wanted to play (e.g. when rehearsing). One song, Pina, reminded us all of a mutual friend. So we called it that too. And we found out that the characters of certain songs can be called very aptly by first names (Olga, Michail). In the meantime this has become a fixed way of working, there are songs whose names have to be found afterwards, sometimes we orient ourselves to friends and acquaintances and sometimes we also use the name to make the character of a piece clear to each other. "

Discography

Publications

  • 1993: The Wood (Promotape)
  • 1995: The Wood (Album, Trikont / Indigo )
  • 1997: Velouria (album, chrome / EFA )
  • 1998: Drei (album, chrome / EFA)

Sampler contributions

  • 1993: Das Holz mit Veljanov - Spanish Caravan (on The Lizard King: A Tribute to Jim Morrison Wave & Electro Cover Versions )

literature

  • Peter Matzke, Tobias Seeliger: The Gothic and Dark Wave Lexicon - The Black Scene from AZ . Extended new edition. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-89602-522-8 , pp. 275 f., 319

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Matzke, Seeliger: The Gothic and Dark Wave Lexicon - The Black Scene from AZ , Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-89602-522-8 , p. 275 f.
  2. ↑ Jo Ziebe: Deine Lakaien - a biography ( memento of the original from June 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on Color-Ize (accessed December 12, 2008). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / de.colour-ize.com
  3. ↑ Christian Komorowski on Color-Ize ( Memento from April 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ a b c d Hella Schrader: Interview with Das Holz ( memento from October 23, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) in Entry - Magazine for Dark Music, Kult (ur) and Avant-garde, accessed on January 1, 2009.
  5. ↑ Frank Keil: Your lackeys + the wood . ( Memento from April 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: Zillo 05/95 (German, accessed January 1, 2009).
  6. ↑ a b Das Holz on Discogs (English, accessed on January 7, 2009).
  7. ↑ a b Das Holz - Velouria Infrared; Retrieved January 2, 2009.
  8. ↑ Kati Gramß on Discogs (accessed January 7, 2009).
  9. ↑ Das Holz auf Musik-Base (accessed on January 2, 2009)
  10. ↑ a b Maik Heinsohn: With violins, trumpet and Hammond organ ( Memento from March 17, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) on Netdiva.de, 08/1998 (accessed on January 2, 2009).
  11. ↑ a b The wood - catchy tunes with girls' names . In: Berliner Kurier , August 10, 1998.